NationStates Jolt Archive

I never believed it anyways. The idea that AQK was alone in doing this was simply ludicrous and his confession was a cover up by the new found al-lies of Pakistan and USA.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4964884&page=1
ABC Exclusive: Pakistani Bomb Scientist Breaks Silence
Dr. A.Q. Khan Gives His First Interview to an American Journalist Since Being Placed Under House Arrest in 2004
By BRIAN ROSS

May 30, 2008—

The Pakistani scientist blamed for running a rogue network that sold nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya has recanted his confession, telling ABC News the Pakistani government and President Perez Musharraf forced him to be a "scapegoat" for the "national interest."

"I don't stand by that," Dr. A.Q. Khan told ABC News in a 35-minute phone interview from his home in Islamabad, where he has been detained since "confessing" that he ran the nuclear network on his own, without the knowledge of the Pakistani government. The interview will be broadcast Friday on "World News With Charles Gibson."

It was his first interview with an American journalist in a series of telephone interviews he has granted this week, marking the 10th anniversary of Pakistan's first test of a nuclear bomb.

"People were asking a lot of questions, so I said, 'OK. Let me give an answer,'" Khan told ABC News early Friday, Pakistan time.

As to his widely publicized confession, Khan said he was told by Musharraf that it would get the United States "off our backs" and that he was promised he would be quickly pardoned. "Those people who were supposed to know knew it," Khan said about his activities.

If true, it would mean Pakistan lied to the U.S. and the international community about its role in providing nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya.

A spokesman for the Embassy of Pakistan in Washington, D.C. said today the government there hasn't changed its views on Khan despite the claims he makes in the interview, "The government of Pakistan has adequately investigated allegations of nuclear proliferation and considers the AQK affair closed," said a statement from the embassy to ABC News.

A U.S. official said American investigators were also unconvinced of Khan's latest claims. "We have not changed our assessment that A.Q. Khan was a very major and dangerous proliferator. He sold sensitive nuclear equipment and know-how to some genuinely bad actors," the official said.

Khan admitted in the ABC News interview that he had twice traveled to North Korea but denied ever going to Iran or Libya.

Khan said the North Korean nuclear weapons program was "well-advanced" before he arrived, as part of an officially sanctioned trip by his government.

As to Iran, he said he believed it would be a "long time" before that country would be able to test a nuclear weapon.

Khan said it was ridiculous to suppose that al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden would be able to build or acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan. "How can people who live in a cave hope to do that?" he said.

After his 2004 confession, Pakistani President Musharraf refused to allow U.S. or international experts to question Khan.

"It's none of their bloody business," said Khan, who insisted he would never discuss his past activities with any U.S. investigators.

Khan says he remains under guard and unable to leave his home, other than for medical reasons. "Health is not so good. I have been through a lot of difficulties. You know I had prostate cancer," Khan said.

i am willing to be Pakistan made money off the sell of those technologies.

I never believed it anyways. The idea that AQK was alone in doing this was simply ludicrous and his confession was a cover up by the new found al-lies of Pakistan and USA.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4964884&page=1

There's no way one scientist could, with the help of hundreds of others in the Pakistani military and nuclear program, could be selling designs and equipment and material without the knowledge and consent of the Pakistani military dictatorship.

It was the whole military dictatorship, and the ISI who did this. Not one scientist.

It was the brainchild of the ISI.

found this trawling the interwebs

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=alate0299khanafrica#alate0299khanafrica
Pakistani nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan takes a trip to West Africa. Ostensibly, he is going to oversee the construction of the Hendrina Khan Hotel in Timbuktu, Mali, which he bought the year before and is named after his wife, but it is believed that is just a cover for nuclear-related business. He spends several days in Khartoum, Sudan, where he is spotted touring the al-Shifa factory, bombed by the US the year before in response to al-Qaeda bombings in Africa (see August 20, 1998). In 2006, intelligence sources in India and Israel will claim that Khan actually partly owned the factory. Khan then travels to N’Djamena, the capital of Chad, Timbuktu in Mali, and Niamey, the capital of Niger. Niger has considerable uranium deposits and had been a major supplier of yellowcake uranium to Pakistan in the 1970s. Khan returns to Sudan, where he meets with the Sudanese president, and then returns to Pakistan. Khan is accompanied by his top nuclear aides and a number of Pakistani generals, and all expenses on the trip are paid for by the Pakistani government. CIA undercover agent Valerie Plame Wilson learns about the trip, and the CIA is so concerned that it launches an investigation, especially to find out if Khan could be buying yellowcake from Niger. Plame Wilson’s husband Joseph Wilson, a former US ambassador to the nearby country of Gabon who has close ties to important politicians in Niger, is sent by the CIA to investigate. He concludes that illicit uranium sales are very unlikely since the French government tightly controls Niger’s uranium mines and uranium sales. However, Khan’s trip does raise concern that Khan could be working with Osama bin Laden, because of Khan’s interest in the al-Shifa factory in Sudan, and because of intelligence that the hotel he owns in Timbuktu was paid for by bin Laden as part of a cooperative deal between them. In 2002, Wilson will return to Niger to investigate if Saddam Hussein could be buying uranium in Niger (see February 21, 2002-March 4, 2002). That will lead to the eventual outing of his wife Plame Wilson’s status as a CIA agent.

and more interesting stuff there...